Paul Walsh / Barry Falk Walking With Strangers / In Search of Amnesia Joint book launch and book signing

Paul Walsh and Barry Falk are both members of the MAP6 Collective, a group of 10 photographers who have been working together for over 14 years creating projects that explore people and places, from as far afield as Moscow and Lithuania to Wales and the Shetland Islands.

Paul Walsh is a British photographer whose work is derived from his lifelong passion for walking. His personal work examines the relationship between walking and photography, creating projects drawn from the physical, psychological and historical experience of being in natural or urban landscapes. Paul’s work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibitions in the UK and abroad, and his first book 'Walking With Strangers' was recently published by Another Place Press.

Barry Falk is a UK based photographer exploring a range of subjects related to the psychological sense of self. He has documented places that have undergone collective trauma, focussing on Eastern Europe to consider both his own personal history and explore how certain locations hold a sense of collective grief related to the Jewish narrative of loss. He is currently exploring nostalgia linked to the fascination with the former GDR. Barry has exhibited within the UK and internationally. He has recently published his first book ‘In Search of Amnesia’, published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg.

Both photographers touch upon a number of interconnected themes, including exploring sacred pilgrimages sites, collective memory and personal loss, transgenerational trauma and religious identity. With both book projects the theme of connecting with others has been key: for Paul it was encountering and connecting with people whilst walking, who were seeking to overcome major life events and find something that was missing from their lives; for Barry it was seeking traces of a once vibrant Jewish narrative, that has largely disappeared from Eastern Europe, by meeting the various custodians of memory: the historians, conservationists, archivists, forensic archaeologists, tour guides, academics and the visiting Jewish people tracing their family genealogy.

Paul’s project follows a number of Camino Pilgrimage routes on foot, beginning at the town of Le Puy en Velay in southern France and ending 1700km later at the town of Muxia on the west coast of Spain; Barry travelled through southeast Poland and northwest Ukraine, following the old Chasidic Rabbi routes that led to surprising synagogues and rivers and transportation lines that inevitable led to the death camps. For both photographers the act of travelling to the places of original trauma and potential spirituality, treading in the footsteps of others, past and present, led to a deep sense of connection and understanding that informed the final projects.

For this event Paul and Barry will be sharing insights into their projects, as well as signing copies of their book.

Paul Walsh - @paulwalshphotography / https://paulwalshphotography.co.uk/ Barry Falk - @barryfalk / https://www.barryfalk.com/